LOUISVILLE, Ky — Authorities are investigating two shootings in a western Louisville neighborhood that have left three people dead and three others hospitalized.

According to Sky5 News, the first incident unfolded around 1PM on Thursday after four people were shot in a crime-ridden section west of downtown Louisville known as Russell neighborhood.

Among the victims were Craig Bland Jr., 22, and Tyson Mimms, 24, who both died of multiple gunshot wounds. Two other men remain unidentified but were transported to University Hospital where they remain hospitalized, one in critical condition and the other with non-life threatening injuries.

As police investigated and a host of media gathered nearby to interview onlookers, two women at the scene began arguing. According to police, the altercation escalated until one of the women pulled out a gun and shot the other dead.

“This kind of violence is unacceptable,” said Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad, who was at the scene when the second shooting broke out. “I have not seen that before. It’s hard to put yourself in this woman’s head and figure out what motivates someone to pull out a gun amidst so many police officers.”

The woman killed in the second round of gunfire was Makeba Lee, 24, who died of multiple gunshot wounds at the scene, Conrad said. The shooter was then taken down by police gunfire and taken to the hospital.

ABC News reports the shootings made the day the bloodiest in Louisville since at least July 5, 2011, when four people were killed, and Oct. 6, 2008, when a mother stabbed her two children, then killed herself on the same day two other homicides took place.

Chief Steve Conrad talks more about the 2012 Louisville shootings in the video below: